How did this
scheme become known, some may ask; by whom was itdiscovered?
We cannot speak of it as discovered, for in truth it has always been known
tomankind, though sometimes temporarily
forgotten in certain parts of the world.

There has
always existed a certain body of highly developed men – men not of any one
nation, but of all the advanced nations – who have held it in its fullness; and
there has always been pupils of these men, who were specially studying it,
while its broad principles have always been known in the outer world.

This body of
highly-developed men exists now, as in past ages, and Theosophical teaching is
published to the Western world at their instigation, and through a few of their
pupils.

Those who are
ignorant have sometimes clamorously insisted that, if this be so, these truths
ought to have been published long ago; and most unjustly they accuse the
possessors of such knowledge of undue reticence in withholding them from the
world at large. They forget that all who really sought these truths have always
been able to find them, and that it is only now that we are in the

Western world
are truly beginning to seek.

For many
centuries Europe was content to live, for the most part, in the grossest
superstition; and when reaction at last set in from the absurdity and bigotry
of those beliefs, it brought a period of atheism, which was just as conceited
and bigoted in another direction. So that it is really only now that

some of the
humbler and more reasonable of our people are beginning to admit that they know
nothing, and to enquire whether there is not real information available
somewhere.

Though these
reasonable enquirers are as yet a small minority, the Theosophical Society has
been founded in order to draw them together, and its books are put before the
public so that those who will, may read, mark, learn, and inwardly

digest these
great truths. Its missionis not to
force its teaching upon reluctant minds, but simply to offer it, so that those
may take it who feel the

need for it.

We are not in
the least under the delusion of the poor arrogant missionary, who dares to
condemn to an unpleasant eternity every one who will not pronounce his little
provincial shibboleth; we are perfectly aware that all will at last be well for
those who cannot as yet see their way to accept the truth, as well as for those
who receive it with avidity.

But the
knowledge of this truth has, for us and for thousands of others, made life easier
to bear and death easier to face; and it is simply the wish to share these
benefits with our fellow men that urges us to devote ourselves to writing and
lecturing on these subjects.

The broad
outlines of the great truths have

been widely
known in the world for thousands of years, and are so known in the present day.
It is only we in the West who, in our incredible self-sufficiency , have
remained ignorant of them, and scoffed at any fragment of them which may

have come in
our way.

As in the
case of any other science, so in this science of the soul, full details are
known only to those who devote their lives to its pursuit. The men who fully
know – those who are called Adepts – have patiently developed within themselves
the powers necessary for perfect observation. For in this respect there is a
difference between the methods of occult investigation and those of

the more
modern form of science; this latter devotes all its energy to the improvement of
its instruments, while the former aims rather at developmentof the observer.